At the request of a XAML Power Toys user I have updated XAML Power Toys for Visual Studio 2008 to version v5.0.0.01.

This update adds one new feature and corrects the v5 known issue.

The ViewModel creation window now allows selecting the name of the method that is used to raise the PropertyChanged event. You can thank Ted Warring for the suggestion. Awesome Ted, appreciate the feedback and feature suggestion.

ViewModel Creator Gets New Feature

The ViewModel creator tool makes building a ViewModel class a snap. This feature is sensitive to C# and VB.NET and will create the correct code for you.

The yellow highlight indicates the new feature added in v5.0.0.1. You can now select or type in the name of the method that will be called when raising a PropertyChanged event.

This name value is also used if you selected the Implement INotifyPropertyChanged option.

This name feature enables you to use any name in your ViewModel base classes and have the generated code us it.

As always, you can download XAML Power Toys for Visual Studio 2008 here:

I contacted JB Evain the author of Mono.Cecil and determined that Mono.Cecil is licensed under the MIT X11 License and not the Creative Commons license I thought it was. Many thanks to JB for clearing this up for me and for his Mono.Cecil work.

I have updated the XAML Power Toys installer to reflect the new license.

If you have downloaded XAML Power Toys already, you do not need to re-download since the MIT X11 license is even less restrictive than the Creative Commons license I thought I had to use.

Sorry for any confusion, this is my first license agreement I had to post.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

I’m now using Mono.Cecil for assembly reflection and it’s licensed using the above license.

Many corporate developers have a requirement that all software they install and use must have a license agreement. I’ve added it so corporate customers can now use XAML Power Toys in their organizations.

My blog has been very quiet the last month because I’ve been working very long hours in preparation for the next release of Visual Studio 2010. On the weekends I was relaxing and not doing much with my computer.

I’ve been all cranked up at home the last week, back to my 2:00am working sessions.

I’m sitting at FireStarter in Redmond now and will be presenting XAML Power Toys v5 at 3:45pm PST.

The new releases of the Smoking Hot WPF and Silverlight Toolkits has prompted an update for XAML Power Toys.

New Features In v3.5

XAML Power Toys has been fully updated to support the new release of the WPF Toolkit released on 10/28/2008. There were some property name changes in the DataGrid, these have been updated. I strongly suggest you download the new release of the WPF Toolkit as the XAML spit from this tool matches the new release and not the previous beta WPF Toolkit.

Both the WPF and Silverlight DataGrid XAML design tools now allow you to select the DatePicker. If selected, the DatePicker will be rendered in a DataGridTemplateColumn.

Both the WPF and Silverlight form design tools now allow you to select the DatePicker as a UI control that can be rendered on the form.

The Silverlight Toolkit was released on 10/28/2008. This toolkit has a Label control. XAML Power Toys supports rendering a Label using the new control. See the Control Defaults section below for guidance on enabling the new Silverlight Label control.

XAML Power Toys Live Meeting Broadcast on Thursday, 30 October

This will be a one hour live session over Microsoft Live Meeting. The meeting will start at 9:00pm EST, 8:00pm CST or 6:00pm PST.

You can get your questions answered live as well as gets tips on the tool.

This session will be posted on the NotAtPDC.com presentations page soon. The post will provide a link that you can click on to get connected to the meeting. If you have never done this before, it is very easy and FREE!